This conversation brought together leaders in lifestyle medicine and wealth stewardship to explore how everyday choices shape not only lifespan, but healthspan. Hosted by Tara Jones, Managing Director and Head of Lifestyle Services at Cresset, and featuring Dr. Donald D. Hensrud, preventive medicine and nutrition expert at Mayo Clinic, the session highlighted a simple idea with big impact: what we eat and how we live are core assets in a life well lived.
Key Takeaways
- Evidence over hype: Nutrition is noisy. Dr. Hensrud focused on what large, well-designed studies consistently show and how to apply it practically.
- Longevity’s core pattern: Diets higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, fish, and olive oil, along with coffee for those who tolerate it, are linked with lower mortality and chronic disease risk.
- 90–10 approach to enjoyment: Aim for healthy choices most of the time, then enjoy discretionary foods with a quality-over-quantity mindset.
- Coffee can be a positive: Coffee consumption is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s, some liver diseases, and depression. The issue is side effects and sugary add-ins, not the coffee itself.
- Microbiome, food-first wins: A diet rich in fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, and fermented cottage cheese improved inflammatory markers and microbiome diversity more than simply adding fiber in one of the best-designed studies to date.
- Practical Takeaway: Eat real food, mostly plants, move your body, build balance and strength, and keep it enjoyable. That is the science-backed path to living longer and living better.
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